1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid composition, an ink set, and an ink tank for ink jet recording, an ink jet recording method, and an ink jet recording apparatus.
2. Related Art
Many of printers currently used are ink jet recording apparatuses in which an ink is ejected from ink ejection ports of nozzles, slits or a porous film, since they have a small size and are inexpensive. Among the ink jet recording apparatuses, a piezo ink jet recording apparatus in which an ink is ejected by utilizing deformation of piezoelectric elements, and a thermal ink jet recording apparatus in which an ink is ejected by utilizing boiling phenomenon of an ink caused by thermal energy have a high resolution and a high-speed printing property.
Currently, one of the important issues for ink jet recording apparatuses is achieving higher speed printing and higher image quality on plain paper.
When an image is formed on a recording medium using ink of low viscosity, the phenomena of decreasing image optical density, ink feathering, or curling of paper, which occur due to ink (including a coloring material) infiltrating inside the paper, have been identified.
One measure to improve this problem is increasing the amount of the solvent in a liquid composition or ink. However, increasing the amount of the solvent results in a decrease in the content of water in the liquid composition or ink. As a result, the effective concentration of the electrolyte in the liquid composition or ink increases, which may cause precipitation of the aggregating agent or the surfactant in the liquid composition or ink.